Avon Lake City Council greenlights PolyOne tax abatement

Avon Lake City Council gave a resounding yes to a potential PolyOne Corp. expansion which could bring a new global innovation center to the company’s headquarters at 33587 Walker Road.

On March 11 Council approved the 15-year community reinvestment agreement (CRA), a 100 percent tax abatement for the project on the table.

PolyOne’s plans would mean a nearly $25 million investment for a new 80,000-100,000 square foot addition and would create 28 new high paying jobs in Avon Lake over the next five years. PolyOne currently has an annual payroll of $35 million, according to the ordinance.

The plan has already been approved by the Avon Lake City Schools Board of Education and the Avon Lake CRA Housing Council.

The proposal would provide support for Avon Lake City Schools, benefiting the community.

“It does give the schools flexibility in how they can spend that money and also doesn’t apply against the state formula for receiving money from the state,” said Mayor Greg Zilka.

“So it’s a real great thing to have to reward kids to send them to workshops, special events and also to provide teacher education and training. It’s really a good relationship. “

According to Economic Development Director Ted Esborn, city officials began discussions with PolyOne in late 2018 about tax incentive ideas for a potential research and development facility with talks picking up in early February.

At a Feb. 19 Economic Development Committee meeting, Esborn made it clear the abatement is part of a process the city and PolyOne were going through to determine possible incentives available.

With Council’s approval the project is back in PolyOne’s court to determine the next steps forward. Construction could begin as early as spring, 2019 with construction completed by spring, 2020, according to the legislation.

PolyOne Vice-President of Corporate Communications noted on Feb. 19 the company’s desire to continue innovating in the proposed expansion. He said this would be a location where PolyOne envisions representatives from all different sectors of their company offerings to customers, working together and collaborating to solve problems in materials sciences and to truly innovate.

“We are in about 30 countries right now. In many of those countries we also have leads and R and D (research and development) and testing facilities,” Rose said. “We have innovation centers and we have those assets right here in Avon Lake as well but what we don’t have is a truly global innovation center.”

PolyOne is global provider of specialized polymer materials and services. The company has operations in thermoplastic compounds, specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, thermoplastic resin distribution, and vinyl resins.